


Lights Off

by twyly56



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alec Is So Cute and Soft For Magnus, Alec Lightwood's Impossibly Cute Awkward Smiles, Archery, BAMF Alec Lightwood, Barefoot Dancing in the Grass, Cute Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Dancing in the Rain, Dark and Dangerous and Lovely, Fae & Fairies, Fae Alec Lightwood, Fae Are As Vicious As They Are Beautiful, Fae Magic, Forests, Gift Giving, Imprinting Like a Baby Duck, Lying But Not Lying, Magical Tattoos, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Alec Lightwood, Prince Alec Lightwood, Protective Alec Lightwood, Roundabout Ways of Talking, Seelie Alec Lightwood, Seelie Court, The Clave (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Unseelie Court, Warlock Magnus Bane, Warlock Marks (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Waving
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-09-24 01:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17091290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twyly56/pseuds/twyly56
Summary: Magnus first meets the Seelie Queen's son when he gets a personal invitation to her Court. The beautiful boy with black flowers on his skin is his guide in her deadly realm. Alec really, really likes the warlock, but he can't seem to trick him into staying permanently. It's frustrating.





	1. Prologue

Water babbled and bubbled up from under the bridge, flowing outwards in a gushing stream. Fireflies danced along the surface of the water, lighting up the dark blackness of it all with their white glow. The young warlock looked over the railing of the bridge and gazed into the stream. 

"I have - I have an open invitation with the Queen," he said. A woman walking her child down the cobblestone bridge stared at him oddly as she passed by. He looked back at the babbling brook. "I just need... I just need a minute of her time," Magnus finished. He felt stupid for just talking to the water. Even though that is what he had been told to do. It would have just been easier if he knew where to find them instead having to ask. 

There was a crunch of earth behind him, and he turned his head. A teenage boy with messy pitch black hair and wild hazel eyes walked closer to him, wearing a loose long sleeved black tunic and fitted black pants, the hems disappearing into leather boots. A circlet of leaves and dark blue flowers sat on top of his wavy hair. Black flowers were painted - no, imprinted, growing - on the side of his neck from under his collar and trailing up the left side of his face. He had an amused smile on his lips. Magnus blinked at him. 

"And so you show up unannounced?" the boy said. His voice was as soft as the smile on his face. 

"What? No. This is a game I play. With - with my neighbor and a kid," Magnus lied, scratching the back of his neck. He pointed at the woman and her child still walking on the other side of the bridge. "Walking away pretending not to know me is part of the game. The kid made it up. Pretend there are Faeries in the water, and I'm the only one that can talk to them..." 

The boy giggled, shaking his head. When he shook his head, his black hair shifted, and Magnus saw the pointed tips of his ears. Those flowers must not be tattoos either, then. 

"Silly boy. The Fair Folk hide beyond the water, not in it," he said. 

"You're a Seelie," Magnus stated. He smiled. "Great. I need a minute with your Queen." 

He tilted his head slightly to the side. 

"Her son stands before you, warlock," the boy said. "My mother has indeed extended an open invitation to you. She sent me to collect you." 

"That's great. Yeah. You know, I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Magnus," Magnus replied with a smile. 

"Alec," the boy told him. His hazel stared at him intently without blinking for a few long moments. 

"I, uh, should we get going now, Alexander?" Magnus asked. 

"Oh. Yes. We should," Alec agreed hastily. He grabbed Magnus's hand and slipped his fingers into the warlock's. Hands clasped together, the Seelie began to pull him down the bridge into the forest. "Don't let go of my hand. I wouldn't want you to get lost." 

"Alright," Magnus said. That sounded like a great idea. 


	2. Chapter 2

The Seelie led him through the darkness and a quickly setting fog, weaving expertly between branches, shrubbery, and overgrown roots. His hand was warm where Alec had his clasped with his own. The creatures of the night buzzed about, owls hooting, bugs making their music. The pale light of the crescent moon overhead barely made its way in through the thick branches of the forest canopy overhead. Alec stopped abruptly in front of a large Weeping Willow, and Magnus had to take a step back to avoid crashing into him. The Seelie smiled at him, hazel eyes shining. He lifted his palm, which was now glowing a soft shade of green.

He placed it on the bark, pressing it hard enough to make droplets of red run down the trunk of the tree. Alec chanted in a lilting, ancient language that Magnus had never heard before. He assumed it must have been what the Fae spoke to each other. Magnus's eyes widened as stairs, wooden spiral ones, appeared in the base of the tree, leading down into a softly glowing Other place. Alec tugged him forward with a grin, and they descended the spiral staircase. The Seelie's boots were soft on the uneven earth as he stepped off the last step. Magnus followed close behind him. 

Alec led the warlock through hallways of dirt lined with trees of all sorts, moss growing on the walls. The large rocks embedded on the base of the walls were covered in a pale blue fungus that seemed to glow in the dim atmosphere, lighting their path. Magnus could hear music and laughter echoing far away in the halls as he was taken past many doors and branching corridors. There was a curtain of low hanging leaves that Alec brushed aside to let them enter a large clearing with a huge chandelier made of icicles and glistening, raw stones that grew down from the ceiling. Magnus looked at it with awe. He had never seen anything like it. It was the sort of thing that painters would spend their whole life trying to capture, the sort of thing that inspired singers. 

Ice covered the walls of this room, and a young girl who looked to be eight or nine sat in a complex throne like seat made of tree branches and jagged rock. Her hair was wild, long and thick and the color of the setting sun, falling past her waist. A crown of leaves and berries sat upon her head, brushing the top of her forehead and covering almost all of the top of her scalp. Her eyes were a murky green, glistening like shards of emerald in her youthful face. Golden leaves grew up the sides of her face and neck, glowing slightly. Her smile was as sharp as the icicles that extended from the ceiling. She motioned them forward with a small hand. Alec inclined his head to her, and Magnus went to bow, but the Seelie Prince stopped him with a smile. The Queen looked amused and leaned back in her throne. 

"My Child," she said, her voice melodic and entrancing. While Alec's was soft and like honey pouring in his ears, shy almost, hers was laced with authority and like fine silk of the softest materials, accented in that odd way that seemed to be only for the Fair Folk. Magnus could see the similarities in their facial structures, though. The Queen looked more like his younger sister than his mother, but Seelie were strange in many ways. 

"Mother," Alec replied. 

"And my dear, dear Magnus Bane! How grand it is to finally meet the warlock himself," the Queen said, shifting her green gaze to Magnus. "I have summoned you to stay with us for a few days until your one hundredth birthday. It would be an honor to have one of the most esteemed warlocks in my Court for such a blessed time. Do you accept, Magnus?" 

Magnus did not know why one hundred was a blessed time and he really wasn't sure he wanted to stay, but he had a strange urge to say yes bubble up in his throat. Also, it was the polite thing to do. He tried not to even imagine what the Queen would do to him if he managed to offend her in her own Court. 

"I would be honored, your Grace," Magnus replied as cordially as he could, dipping his head. 

Alec was staring at him again, and his hand tightened slightly around his. Not that much, but Magnus had noticed it. The Queen smiled at his response and shifted her eyes to her son. 

"Excellent. Child, take our guest to his room," she commanded. The Queen also said something in that Fae tongue of theirs, and Alec remained stock still, the tips of his ears turning pink. He muttered something back, and she laughed, a musical sound that tickled at his ears. Magnus felt a bit weird as they conversed back and forth for a few moments before they switched back to a language he could understand. 

"Of course, Mother," the Seelie replied softly. 

"My son will your guide. If you have anything you need to ask or would like to know, you need but ask him," the Queen said. 

"Thank you, your Grace," Magnus replied. 

"If you will follow me," Alec said.

He began to pull the warlock with him again. The Seelie led him through a backdoor off to the side of her throne to a large wooden door carved with intricate designs of birds, flowers, vines, and trees. Magnus was stunned by how beautiful it was. He had seen many different things in his life, but everything about this hidden Realm seemed to leave him in awe. Alec pushed open the door and ushered him inside. Before he let go of his hand, the Seelie all but boxed him in by the wall. Magnus blinked and looked up into his hazel eyes. Alec stared at him. 

"You have lovely eyes," the Seelie said. "I have never seen such a shade of gold." 

Gold? Damn it. Had his glamour gone down without him noticing? Magnus touched his face in confusion. But his heart still fluttered slightly from the compliment. No one had ever liked his eyes before. Everyone had always been disgusted or disturbed by them. And the Fair Folk were incapable of lying. 

"Well, it's not like you look that bad yourself," Magnus shot back. "I don't usually go for the whole black on black thing, but you pull it off." 

He was surprised and a bit flattered to see the Seelie flat out _blush._  He didn't even know that they did that. Alec let go of his and ducked his head. His dark hair bounced with movement. Alec was smiling and seemed almost shy. 

"I, uh, thank you. Please let me know if you require anything," the Seelie said. "I shall return in a few hours. Try to get some rest." 

Alec swept out of the room, quick footsteps soft, shutting the door gently behind himself. Magnus smiled after him and shook his head. Who knew the Seelie Prince would be so awkwardly cute? Magnus took a moment to take in his surroundings. A curved doorway led to a bedroom with a sheer forest covering of leaves for a door. A huge four poster cherry wood bed was pushed up against the wall, and it was littered with pillows of all different sizes. The sheets were a pale green color and made of a soft material that he had never seen before, but it felt really nice against his skin. The comforter was a darker shade of green. A fireplace burned steadily in the corner, crackling and popping quietly. 

Magnus noticed a large mirror with fine details carved into the sides and all along its base above the fireplace, carved with flowers and intricate looking Celtic knots. Actual flowers grew up from the edges of the wall near the door and bedposts, weaving up with tiny green vines. Magnus stepped toward the mirror and looked into it. He frowned when he saw the same plain brown color his glamour always had. Alec had said they were gold. How could he have known that if they were glamoured? The warlock shook his head with a sigh, dragging his hand over his face. 

He kicked off his shoes and yanked off his socks, shoving them inside his shoes. He unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off, hanging it off the bedpost. Magnus moved over to the bed, and he plopped down it. He stretched out on it and buried his face in a plush pillow. Hmm, so soft. The fire crackled and popped lazily as he shut his eyes. He let the soothing sounds of the forest outside lull him to sleep, dragging him into the realm of unconsciousness. It had been a long day. 


	3. Chapter 3

Magnus went out of his room and tried to find his way back to the throne room. It turned out that this task was nigh impossible for some reason. The hallways all wound together and didn't go linear in any sense of the word. It gave him a headache just looking at it. Darn. Now he was lost for sure. He stopped by a place with an entrance to a darkened room with thorny looking trees and spiky bushes. 

"Are you Seelie?" a raspy, dry voice asked, speaking from the darkness by the jagged wood area. 

"No. My name is Magnus," Magnus said. 

It was this measured reply that caused the second Seelie, a dryad, pacing along the treeline four yards back to snap to attention. Head turning towards them with a snap that nearly echoes like a twig splintering under footsteps. Magnus has only the span of an inhale, enough time to process glowing green eyes sharp as pine needles, before the creature had moved. Its shadow was looming over the warlock through the fence of treelike material. Hawthorns on its shoulder blades were bristling like porcupine quills. Magnus took a cautious step back, holding up his hands. 

"Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just looking for Alexander," the warlock told it. 

"You called?" a familiar voice said, and Magnus nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around to see a smiling Seelie Prince looking at him, murky hazel eyes bright with amusement. Magnus smacked him on the arm. 

"Don't do that! You scared me," he hissed. 

"I do apologize. I was simply tending to some business for my mother. But my work has concluded for now, and I am free to be your guide for the rest of the day," Alec said. 

"That's great," Magnus admitted. He took a breath to calm himself. "What did you have in mind exactly, Alexander?" 

 

Magnus didn't know how long they spent exploring. A unicorn with shining silver hair agreed to carry them all over the land. There are forests with trees tall enough to block out any light and mountains so high up that one couldn't see the ground from the top, only fluffy white clouds, rocky beaches with water that stretched out infinitely, blending into the horizon. He might like the colorful canyons best, layers and layers of rocks in vibrant shades blues and oranges and whites. He had never seen anything like them in all of his century of life. 

The Seelie and the warlock paused in a field full of flowers, golden blooms that seemed to chime whenever the wind blows. The unicorn took a nap, all stretched out with a few small birds nestling comfortably into her mane. Magnus and Alec walked up the rolling hill, staying in sight of the unicorn but moving out of her hearing. The flowers curled up around his calves, and he could feel the fauna brushing against him through his black trousers. A slight breeze through his hair, rustling the red tipped locks he had brushed to the side earlier this morning. 

Magnus started when he realized that that wasn't the breeze going through his hair. He felt nails lightly scrape against his scalp. He lifted his hand up, and his fingers encountered another hand. He frowned, and Alec smiled at him. The Seelie paused what he was doing but remained just as close. Magnus patted the top of his head, feeling the beginning of a braid and little flowers. 

"What on earth are you doing?" the warlock asked. 

"I am simply putting gardenia in your hair. For good luck," Alec told him softly. 

"Uh, thank you, I guess? Could you not put them in my hair, though? If you want to braid my hair that badly, you can, but just without the flowers," Magnus said. If you accepted anything from the Fair Folk, unless they explicitly stated it was a boon for something you helped them with, they could use it against you in some way. He didn't want to take that chance, even if he thought it was kind of cute, in a weird way. 

"My apologies," Alec murmured.

His deft fingers unwound the small flowers from his hair, and Magnus saw them fall back around them. Magnus ran a hand through his own hair to make sure all of the flowers were out, shaking it out. Almost as soon as he was done, Alec started to work at braiding the hair on the top of his head again. Magnus really didn't think it was long enough for that, but the Seelie was definitely determined. He let him have his fun. It was just hair. He seriously doubted that Alec could anything _that_ horrible to his hair. Besides, the Seelie didn't usually harm their guests unless provoked, so he didn't have to worry about that. 

It was ridiculously relaxing to let the Seelie play with his hair. His long fingers were really gentle, tugging firmly but not nearly hard enough to cause pain. His thoughts went to a slow lull, and he shut his eyes, leaning into Alec's touch with a little hum. Magnus thinks he must have dozed off or something because when he opened his eyes again, he was lying next to Alec in the field of flowers, staring up at the pristine blue sky. Nary a cloud was in sight currently. Alec was running his fingers through the shorter hair at the nape of his neck, singing something in that odd Fae tongue of his.

Magnus touched the top of his head, and he felt a lot of tiny braids interspersed in his hair, woven into it expertly and very tightly. He wasn't quite sure what the bottom of the braids were tied with, but it was very thin and felt nearly invisible. The warlock looked over at the Seelie, and Alec smiled at him. The Seelie held up a dendrobium orchid to him, and Magnus fought back a snort. Alec was persistent, he had to give him points for that, he supposed. Magnus pushed his hand back, shaking his head with a smile. 

"No thank you," the warlock said. 

He would have said what Alec did next was a pout, but that wasn't quite the right word for the expression for the Seelie made. The flower went back among its living brethren, and Alec leaned into his side with a little sigh, laying his head on his shoulder. His hand went back to stroking Magnus's hair. Magnus smiled to himself. 


End file.
